Henry Ford - Wikiquote Henry Ford Jump to: navigation , search An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous. Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. Henry Ford ( July 30 , 1863 – April 7 , 1947 ) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company . He was one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of affordable automobiles. Contents Quotes[ edit ] 1910s I don’t know whether Napoleon did or did not try to get across there and I don’t care. I don’t know much about history, and I wouldn’t give a nickel for all the history in the world. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today. Interview in Chicago Tribune (25 May 1916) An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

Remarks from the witness stand, to a court in Mount Clemens, Michigan (July 1919), as quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1948) by Edmund Fuller, p. 162 International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German-Jews, French-Jews, English-Jews, American-Jews … the Jew is the threat. Henry Ford, quoted in New York World, 1919, as cited in: Martin Allen (2002). Hidden Agenda: How the Duke of Windsor Betrayed the Allies. p. 55-56 1920s So, while the people are indeed supreme over the written Constitution, the spiritual constitution is supreme over them. The French Revolutionists wrote constitutions too—every drunken writer among them tossed off a constitution. Where are they? All vanished. Why? Because they were not in harmony with the constitution of the universe. The power of the Constitution is not dependent on any Government, but on its inherent rightness and practicability. Henry Ford (1922).

Ford Ideals: Being a Selection from "Mr. Ford's Page" in The Dearborn Independent. p. 323; as cited in: William A. Levinson, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success. CRC Press, 2013. p. xxix I've never made a flight in an airplane, and I don't know that I'm particularly anxious to. I would, though, like to take a trip in a dirigible . Bring one out here some time, won't you, Doctor Eckener , and give me a ride? Raymond J. Brown. " Henry Ford Says, 'There Is Always Room for More' ," in: Popular Science, Vol. 106, nr. 2 (Feb 1925), p. 37 I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan.

I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us. Interview in the San Francisco Examiner (26 August 1928) There's just one thing that's permanent in this world, and that's change . And when a man gets too old to change, why, then, he dies. And after that, who knows? Do we go on somewhere else? We'd all like to think so; it seems sometimes as though something inside us was telling us that we do. But if we do live on, then one thing is sure: The fellows who are afraid all the time that they may lose what they've got will lose out over there just the way they lose out here.

And the big prizes will keep right on going to the fellows who do their duty and have faith. That's all there is to happiness , according to my way of thinking—just doing your duty and having faith . Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine , April 1921 Money doesn't change men. It merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish , or arrogant, or greedy, the money brings it out; that's all. Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine, April 1921 1930s The provision of a whole new system of electric generation emancipated industry from the leather belt and line shaft, for it eventually became possible to provide each tool with its own electric motor. This may seem only a detail of minor importance. In fact, modern industry could not be carried out with the belt and line shaft for a number of reasons. The motor enabled machinery to be arranged in the order of the work, and that alone has probably doubled the efficiency of industry, for it has cut out a tremendous amount of useless handling and hauling.

The belt and line shaft were also tremendously wasteful – so wasteful indeed that no factory could be really large, for even the longest line shaft was small according to modern requirements. Also high speed tools were impossible under the old conditions – neither the pulleys nor the belts could stand modern speeds. Without high speed tools and the finer steels which they brought about, there could be nothing of what we call modern industry. Henry Ford and Samuel Crowther (1930). Edison as I Know Him. Cosmopolitan Book Company. p. 15 Through all the years that I have been in business I have never yet found our business bad as a result of any outside force. It has always been due to some defect in our own company, and whenever we located and repaired that defect our business became good again - regardless of what anyone else might be doing. And it will always be found that this country has nationally bad business when business men are drifting, and that business is good when men take hold of their own affairs, put leadership into them, and push forward in spite of obstacles. Only disaster can result when the fundamental principles of business are disregarded and what looks like the easiest way is taken.

These fundamentals, as I see them, are: (1) To make an ever increasingly large quantity of goods of the best possible quality, to make them in the best and most economical fashion, and to force them out onto the market. (2) To strive always for higher quality and lower prices as well as lower costs. (3) To raise wages gradually but continuously B and never to cut them. (4) To get the goods to the consumer in the most economical manner so that the benefits of low cost production may reach him. These fundamentals are all summed up in the single word 'service'... The service starts with discovering what people need and then supplying that need according to the principles that have just been given. Henry Ford in: Justus George Frederick (1930), A Philosophy of Production: A Symposium, p. 32; as cited in: Morgen Witzel (2003) Fifty Key Figures in Management. p. 196 The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.

Quoted in The Zanesville Sunday Times-Signal [Zanesville, Ohio] (15 March 1931): On reasons for the Great Depression Let them fail; let everybody fail! I made my fortune when I had nothing to start with, by myself and my own ideas. Let other people do the same thing. If I lose everything in the collapse of our financial structure, I will start in at the beginning and build it up again. February 11, 1934; quoted in: Peter Collier, ‎David Horowitz (2001). The Fords: An American Epic. p. 108 Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. As quoted in The High School Teacher, Vol. XI (1935), p. 60 What we need is some financial engineers . Saturday Evening Post , Feb. 11, 1936 My Life and Work (1922)[ edit ] Henry Ford and Samuel Crowther (1922), My Life and Work , Garden City Publishing Company, Inc.

We have only started on our development of our country — we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface. The progress has been wonderful enough — but when we compare what we have done with what there is to do, then our past accomplishments are as nothing. When we consider that more power is used merely in ploughing the soil than is used in all the industrial establishments of the country put together, an inkling comes of how much opportunity there b ahead. And now, with so many countries of the world in ferment and with so much unrest everywhere, is an excellent time to suggest something of the things that may be done — in the light of what has been done. When one speaks of increasing power, machinery, and industry there comes up a picture of a cold, metallic sort of world in which great factories will drive away the trees, the flowers, the birds, and the green fields. And that then we shall have a world composed of metal machines and human machines. With all of that I do not agree.

I think that unless we know more about machines and their use, unless we better understand the mechanical portion of life, we cannot have the time to enjoy the trees, and the birds, and the flowers, and the green fields. p. 1; as cited in: William A. Levinson, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success. CRC Press, 2013. p. xxvii I am not a reformer . I think there is entirely too much attempt at reforming in the world and that we pay too much attention to reformers. We have two kinds of reformers. Both are nuisances. The man who calls himself a reformer wants to smash things. He is the sort of man who would tear up a whole shirt because the collar button did not fit the buttonhole. It would never occur to him to enlarge the buttonhole. This sort of reformer never under any circumstances knows what he is doing. Experience and reform do not go together. A reformer cannot keep his zeal at white heat in the presence of a fact. He must discard all facts. p. 2 The economic fundamental is labour .

Labour is the human element which makes the fruitful seasons of the earth useful to men. It is men 's labour that makes the harvest what it is. That is the economic fundamental: every one of us is working with material which we did not and could not create, but which was presented to us by Nature. p. 9 As long as we look to legislation to cure poverty or to abolish special privilege we are going to see poverty spread and special privilege grow. p. 10 Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. p. 19. Quotes in: Arch Wilkinson Shaw (1927). The Magazine of Business, Vol. 52, p. 182 Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. p. 72. Chapter IV, : Remark about the Model T in 1909; this has often been paraphrased, e.g.: "You can have any color as long as it's black." I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for.

It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces. p. 73. Chapter IV. Money is only a tool in business. It is just a part of the machinery. You might as well borrow 100,000 lathes as $100,000 if the trouble is inside your business. More lathes will not cure it; neither will more money. Only heavier doses of brains and thought and wise courage can cure. A business that misuses what it has will continue to misuse what it can get. p. 157 Attributed from posthumous publications[ edit ] You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. As quoted in International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations (1951) by William S. Walsh A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

As quoted in News Journal [Mansfield, Ohio] (3 August 1965) When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat. As quoted in Alfa Romeo. I creatori della Leggenda (1990) by Griffith Borgeson You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together. As quoted in Wisdom & Inspiration for the Spirit and Soul (2004) by Nancy Toussaint, p. 85 There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years. As quoted in Biopolymers, Polyamides and Complex Proteinaceous Materials I (2003) by Stephen R. Fahnestock, Alexander Steinbüchel, p. 395 About Henry Ford[ edit ] You can have any colour, as long as it's black You can have any colour, as long as it's black Motor vehicle manufacturing as a parallel to document engineering By Tony Self An allegory is a means of representing an idea using symbolic representation.

It is a kind of extended metaphor. It occurs to me that motor vehicle manufacturing can be used as an allegory for the business of technical communication. Let me explain... from the beginning. The motor car was invented in Europe (Germany, to be specific), and at the start of the 20th Century, most motor vehicles were made in Europe. We may think of the United States as the home of the motor car, but in 1902, a total of 314 cars was produced in America. By contrast, the most prolific motor manufacturing country, France, produced 23,000 cars in that same year. Belgium was producing far more cars than the US. But just four years later, in 1906, the USA overtook all other car manufacturing nations when it produced 58,000 cars. So how did the US transform from a car manufacturing backwater to a powerhouse? One reason was that America was a wealthy country, and at the start of the 20th century, only rich people could afford cars. Although America had lots of rich people, for motor vehicle manufacturing to be a big industry, it needed to develop a mass market.

The man credited with working out how to create a mass market for cars was Henry Ford. He started with the premise that for more people to be able to afford cars, cars needed to be cheaper. This idea sounds simple enough, but in reality, it meant bringing the cost of a car down from around $4000 (twice the average annual income) to less than $1000. Different manufacturing ideas had already been introduced, such as outsourcing (the Olds company came up with this when their factory burned down) and using standardised parts that could be interchanged among several models (an idea developed by Cadillac). Remember, this is an allegory, so the words "outsourcing" and "interchange" are important to note. In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the "assembly line" for motor vehicle construction. The first car model to be produced on the production line was the Model T. The assembly or production line replaced the "coachbuilding" method of building cars (where cars were built individually, one by one). The Model T Ford Ford's assembly line was what we would now call "transformative process engineering".

The assembly line was built on a foundation of standardisation: standard processes to produce simple components in a standardised production system. To understand how standardisation created such an opportunity for efficiency, we need to know the methods that preceded those of Ford. (The terms "standard processes", "simple components", and "standardised production systems" are key to the allegory.) Coachbuilding Tradition Before the assembly line, motor vehicles were made by artisans. Purchasing a motor vehicle was a two-step process: first you would buy a chassis (from a "chassis maker"), and then you would take it to a "coachbuilder". The chassis maker would supply the chassis, the drive train (engine, gears, axles and wheels), the suspension, the radiator, and the steering system. The coachbuilder would build a body for the chassis to suit the customer's needs. If the customer needed four seats, the coachbuilder would build a four-seat cabin. If the customer needed a small truck, the coachbuilder would build a two-seat cabin with a tray on the same chassis. The chassis maker worked in metal, and the coachbuilder worked in wood and leather. Sometimes, chassis makers and coachbuilders would team up to offer a packaged product.

For example, Fisher Body teamed up with Cadillac to build all the closed-body Cadillacs of the 1910s. The Chassis Maker's Product - Royce 15196 The Coachbuilder's Boast - No Two Alike Even after Henry Ford's assembly line had transformed manufacturing and half of all cars in America were Model Ts, coachbuilding persisted. In sharp contrast to Ford, Rolls-Royce was very slow to embrace the assembly line. Up until World War II, every Rolls-Royce was produced by artisans in the coachbuilding tradition, as a rolling chassis to be later sent to an independent coachbuilder. In the 1960s, it became popular for the wealthy to use coachbuilders as a way of creating exclusive and expensive versions of mass-produced (assembly line) cars, including the humble Mini. Hooper, the Rolls-Royce coachbuilders, created the first luxury Mini in 1963 at four times the cost of a standard Mini. The most famous of the Hooper Minis was one owned by Peter Sellers; this car featured a hand-stencilled wicker-work effect body decoration.

Radford Coachbuilders produced the Radford Mini de Ville, which was snapped up by celebrities such as Britt Ekland, all four of the Beatles, Mike Nesmith (of the Monkees), and Marianne Faithful. A standard Mini Cooper cost 850 pounds; a Radford cost 2,500. A Coachbuilt Mini for the Wealthy Even today, over a century after the introduction of Ford's assembly line, coachbuilders still exist, but they have become niche companies servicing the wealthy. Car manufacturers with a reliance on coachbuilding are now all but extinct. (The Rolls-Royce company was broken up in 1998, and the brand is now owned by BMW. Rolls-Royce cars are now produced using assembly line techniques, with 20% of the current model Rolls-Royce Ghost being shared components of the BMW 7 Series.) Now remember, this is supposed to be an allegory. How is this history of car manufacturing symbolic of the business of technical communication? I'll get to that shortly...

Any colour, so long as it's black The assembly line is a manufacturing process where parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using "division of labour", where one person repeatedly performs only one small portion of the entire process. Practically speaking, this means that one person's job might be to hammer the spokes into the wheels; nothing more, nothing less. The spoke hammerer becomes an expert at spoke hammering, and becomes more and more efficient at that task. If the spokes and the wheels arrive at the spoke hammerer's position at exactly the right time, and this is repeated for all the different tasks in the line, the car can be produced at the lowest unit cost. One of Henry Ford's famous quotes about the Model T was, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black." The Model T only came in black because the production line required compromise so that efficiency and improved quality could be achieved. Spraying different colours would have required a break in the production line, meaning increased costs, more staff, more equipment, a more complicated process, and the risk of the wrong colour being applied.

The Model T - The Universal Car Using the car manufacturing metaphor, we can say that technical communication is still largely in the coachbuilding era, where artisans hand-craft unique document products using all-in-one tools such as FrameMaker, Word, RoboHelp, and Flare. Non-standard products with non-interchangeable components are produced, at a cost that only the wealthy customers and employers can afford. Technical communication as a profession risks going the way of coachbuilders... still around, but as an eccentric coterie producing lovely and obsolete products that very few can afford. Sure, there has been some "transfer of skill to the equipment" (a feature of the "American System" of production), but not systemic changes to the production process. Let's look at the parallels... Parallels In the coachbuilding era, a single craftsman or team of craftsmen would create each part of a product. They would use their skills (developed over years as an apprentice) and tools to create the individual parts. Those same craftsmen would then assemble the parts into the final product, making "trial and error" changes in the parts until they fitted. This is the same approach that many technical authors currently use to produce manuals.

A single author or team of authors creates each part of a manual. They use their skills and tools such as word processors and page layout software to create the individual chapters, pages and images. They then assemble them into the final manual, making "trial and error" changes to the layout until the text fits. Let's analyse this allegory a little further. The assembly line was made possible by two major technological developments: toolpath control (where jigs and templates provided a means for repeatable, consistent use of tools) machine tools (such as power drills, lathes and milling machines) These developments not only improved quality, but enabled "interchangeable parts". In coachbuilding, adjoining parts were made to fit each other. In assembly lines, different parts needed to be made in isolation, yet had to fit together when assembled. In document engineering, the equivalent idea is known as "interchangeability"; blocks of text from one document need to be able to work in different documents, and content produced by different authors and even different companies needs to be able to fit together without rework. The assembly line built on ideas from the Industrial Revolution and before.

The "American System" of production of the early 19th Century used the ideas of: division of labour engineering tolerance interchangeable parts Another feature of the American system was the "transfer of skill to the equipment", allowing the use of semi-skilled or unskilled machine operators. When contemplating the impact of document engineering on the technical communication profession, this is thought provoking to say the least! Interchangeability relies on "tolerance", and tolerance is defined through standards. Some people claim that moving away from coachbuilder writing will lead to a loss of quality. Sure, there are compromises that have to be made (any colour as long as it's black), but variety may not be quality. Mass production requires components to be built to higher engineering tolerances than hand-crafting. For parts to be interchanged, they have to be of consistent quality, and a quality that is specified. Document engineering, provided it is working to fine tolerances, produces consistently better quality than hand-crafting. Better, Faster, Stronger Some technical communicators have embraced the assembly line approach, which is cheaper, and produces a higher quality product. (What quality actually means is for another time, but quality is not the same as luxury.

A walnut dashboard isn't necessarily better quality than a plastic one.) Remember Ford's aim of producing a car that costed $1000 instead of $4000? A Model T cost $825 in 1908, but was $575 by 1912. The price of the Model T kept dropping as the production line process was improved, and the skills of workers developed. At the end of the production run, the price was $300, and a total of 15 million Model Ts had been produced. Even Ford's own factory workers could afford to buy a Model T. Without undergoing a revolutionary change in approach, are our document products going to get cheaper and cheaper? Not if we stick with coachbuilding! Like toolpath control and machine tools, XML and DITA are catalysts that can revolutionise technical communication, taking it from coachbuilding to the assembly line and beyond. (We'll find out what followed the assembly line later.) XML and DITA: these two standards allow information "interchange", "outsourcing", "specialisation of labour", "simple re-usable components", and "standardised publication systems", but they also demand skilled technical authors.

XML and DITA also make it possible to reduce the cost of documentation to the same degree that assembly-line reduced the cost of cars. DITA projects sometimes fail because authors try to replicate the coachbuilding approach. They want to keep offering manuals in a colour other than black. Projects also fail because authors are not skilled in the new techniques of structured, componentised, topic-centric authoring. Ford faced the same issue of worker skills. Ford recognised that the skills of the workers had a direct impact on quality and efficiency, so opened a worker training college, and paid his workers a handsome wage of $5 per day. This wage was seen as extraordinarily high (double the going rate for factory workers), and Ford added money management courses to the training programme to ensure his employees used their wages responsibly! And on top of that, he cut one hour off the working day. Ford's profit doubled in the three years after the introduction of the worker training college. Each Ford worker was a specialist, and was recognised as such. Likewise, DITA authors are specialists: document engineers that need to be recognised as such. Many of Ford's workers were immigrants who did not speak English, and could not read or write.

The Training College provided some of the necessary skills, but on-the-job lean training was also employed. The assembly line divided labour into small, repeatable tasks. Ford had built 15 million Model Ts by the time the production line was closed down in 1927. That makes it the second largest production run of any car (behind the VW Beetle, with 21 million). The production line made cars affordable, and enormously expanded the market. Even workers at the Ford factory could afford a Model T. These days, most cars seem to be German, or Japanese. Unless you live in the US, where most cars are American, aren't they? In 1898, Henry Ford's company made one Quadricycle. He made another in 1899, and a third one in 1900. These cars were hand-built. At the zenith of Model T production, one car rolled off the assembly line every 60 seconds. Beyond the Assembly Line - Automation Henry Ford's assembly line was embraced by all manufacturing industries. This resulted in lower costs of mass-produced manufactured goods, and led, rightly or wrongly, to the " consumer culture".

But progress didn't stop at the assembly line, and neither does this allegory. The assembly line method of car manufacture remained the norm until the 1980s, when many of the production line jobs previously performed by humans were automated. "Robots", as they were initially described, took over a lot of precision, dangerous or repetitive processes. Not only did automation lead to more consistent components, but worker injuries, including repetitive strain injuries, were reduced. Today, 50 per cent of all robots are used in car manufacture. Japanese car manufacturers were the first to take advantage of robots, and the perception of quality of Japanese cars was reversed. In the 1970s, Japanese cars ( "Jap Crap") were considered of inferior quality to American or European cars. By the turn of the century, Japanese manufacturer was synonymous with consistently good quality. While robots replaced humans on the production line, they also created higher paid, higher skilled and intellectually stimulating jobs in computer-aided design and manufacture. Automation in car manufacture One of the huge benefits of DITA (and other types of XML) is the opportunity for document automation. In many cases, DITA topics can be automatically generated.

For example, Visma Software developed a little software utility that generates 13,000 reference topics documenting database structures automatically, in less than an hour. As in the Japanese car industry, automation of tedious, repetitive documentation tasks remove drudgery and leave authors to tackle the more intellectually stimulating tasks. Read more: Robots in Car Manufacturing | eHow.com #ixzz1Y020mjyt Toyota was the most successful of the Japanese manufacturers. Not only was automation embraced, but every effort was made to make every stage of the production process more efficient. By the 1990s, the American manufacturers began re-working their own production processes to follow the lead of Toyota, but with little success. While American companies adopted the Japanese systems, they didn't necessarily adopt the philosophy. The Toyota method is known as "TPS (Toyota Production System)". TPS is an integrated socio-technical system of management philosophies and practices. It is built around continuous improvement, and respect for people. TPS has been adopted widely outside Toyota as "lean manufacturing" and "just-in-time (JIT) production". Automation really means "the automation of drudgery". Where now for technical communication? The catalysts for change are here.

As technical communicators, we have to make decisions on what path we take. We can choose to fight on as coachbuilders, finding a romantic niche as crafters of expensive, high-end, bespoke, non-standard documentation products. We can choose to move to the efficient production line, embracing the division of labour, working to standards (engineering tolerance), writing for interchangeability, and transferring as many tasks as possible to automation. The primary catalyst for change is XML-based structured authoring approaches, and in particular DITA. As for "TPS", transition to DITA is most successfully when it is used as an integrated socio-technical system of writing philosophies and practices. As the famous sage Anonymous once said, "if you don't create change, change will create you". Ford produced a high quality product with low cost by standardisation, compromise, interchange, good architecture, and an educated, well-paid workforce. It is a myth to think that standardisation results in lower quality. By many measures, the Model T was the best car Ford ever produced, and was in production for 20 years. The semi-automated assembly line approach is the one that should be taken with DITA and XML.

If we try to incorporate all the features of the coachbuilding way of producing documents, we will lose many of the efficiency and quality control benefits of the new DITA and XML methodology. As well as vision, investment of time and equipment is required to move from coachbuilding to assembly line to automation of drudgery, but that investment is worthwhile. Postscript Model Ts were originally offered in a blue, red, green and grey. From 1913, black was the only option. More than 30 different types of black paint were used on different components, and black was the cheapest, most durable, and easiest to colour-match. Ford almost went broke when they tried to produce multiple products with multiple options in the 1930s. Only retained profits from the Model T saved the company. It is estimated that as many as 150,000 Model Ts still exist, with perhaps 20,000 still on the road. Links Henry Ford Quotes (Author of My Life And Work) Like “When Henry Ford decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine.

The design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine-block in one piece. Ford replied,''Produce it anyway.” 'History is bunk' - the meaning and origin of this phrase History is bunk Live in the present, not the past. Origin Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company, the father of the assembly line and of mass-production, and one of the wealthiest and most famous people who ever lived. However, history is bunk is probably one of the two things that most of us can recall that he ever said. The other being "People can have the Model T in any colour - so long as it's black". Did Henry Ford say 'history is bunk? Well, more or less, yes. What he actually said about history was: "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today." (Chicago Tribune, 1916).

His gung ho, don't concern yourself with the past - live in the present philosophy was also apparent in a couple of other quotations: "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." "If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." In the Series 3, Episode 7 edition of the BBC's QI quiz show, Stephen Fry made this comment: There's no evidence that Ford actually ever said, "Any color you like so long as it's black." Fry's researchers would do well to read Ford's autobiography, My Life and Work, 1922, which includes this passage: In 1909 I announced one morning, without any previous warning, that in the future we were going to build only one model, that the model was going to be "Model T," and that the chassis would be exactly the same for all cars, and I remarked: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." In is likely that Ford was being somewhat playful in making that remark.

Model Ts were, in fact, offered in a choice of colour early in the car's lifetime around 1908, and again after 1926. The statement was true when Ford's biography was published, in 1922, and when he was cutting costs by using a type of quick-drying paint that was only then available in black. Henry Ford Quotes - The Quotations Page Henry Ford - More quotations on: [ Reputation ] If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. Henry Ford, (attributed) Henry Ford, Interview in Chicago Tribune, May 25th, 1916 - More quotations on: [ History ] Talk:Henry Ford - Wikiquote Talk:Henry Ford 14 Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it Any colo(u)r, as long as it is black[ edit ] In Henry Ford´s 1923 autobiography "Henry Ford - My life and work" he quotes himself as saying "Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants so long as it is black.".

According to the BBC program QI the quote "People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it's black." OR: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." Was never actually said by Henry Ford or at least there is no evidence he did do. Luke Corcoran, United Kingdom Really? I won a table quiz on that quote as a kid. I'm disillusioned. He did say this; the quote is from his autobiography. Incidentally, the spelling of colour with a 'u' is intentional. Despite being an American, that is how it is spelled in his autobiography. 137.201.242.130 14:54, 28 July 2006 (UTC) I think the point being made in QI was that, whether or not Henry Ford said it, it was untrue - early Model T Fords were not black. Fys . &#147; Ta fys aym &#148;. 11:42, 9 September 2006 (UTC) Exactly -- he generated this quip after the more fully adopting the assembly line.

After he realized that drying paint took the longest of any step, he had his factory switch to the fastest drying paint they could find, which, of course, was black. -- JamesDMurray 14:42, 16 November 2007 (UTC) History and fact[ edit ] Something like "History is just one damn fact after another" ( Jared Diamond , Guns, Gems and Steel, p. 420) is attributed to Henry Ford by a few pages on the web [1] [2] . Another (peer-reviewed?) reference from 1991 [3] mentions Woodrow Wilson as the source. Any comments? - Fnielsen 11:44, 5 August 2006 (UTC) about communism/socialism[ edit ] I recall reading in a Reader's digest once that he said something in the lines of "Socialism is an attempt to everybody make a living without having to work", but I'm not sure. Unsourced[ edit ] Part of the quotes here are moved back to the article, or moved up to the above section.

there is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something The secret to success is to understand the point of view of others. "Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."[ edit ] I think this quote is apocryphal. The earliest variation of the quote I can find in Wikibooks is from the Franternal Monitor in 1962. But I found an earlier connection with Henry Ford and the basic quote as part of a poem in Napoleon Hill's The Law of Success , where they appear on the same page in 1946, but clearly is not a quotation of Henry Ford. Thus, I suspect that later attributions originated from this. It appears that the original sentiment came from the poem Thinking by Walter D. Wintle. I think this should be added to a misattributed section, but I wanted to put it out to the community first. -- Jacob J. Walker ( talk ) 05:17, 18 October 2013 (UTC) Can you cite any notable or seemingly plausible sources that attribute this to Ford, or is it just something found in internet chatter?

~ Ningauble ( talk ) 11:51, 22 October 2013 (UTC) According to Google Books , there are around 649 books that attribute that quote to Henry Ford. So the misattribution is fairly common. I started to research it, because my daughter saw the "quote" at her school on a poster. And while I agree fully with the sentiment of it, I don't like inaccurate information to be disseminated in schools. -- Jacob J. Walker ( talk ) 13:17, 22 October 2013 (UTC) I am not impressed by the gravitas of those books, but the attribution does appear to be repeated in print widely enough to be worth debunking. Franternal Monitor in 1962 does appear to be the earliest known attribution to Ford. The earliest occurrence I found of this exact aphorism (with "...you're absolutely right") was a year earlier in a first-person essay, without attribution to anyone, in Field Notes, Vol. 61 (1961: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company), p. 21; but I can't identify the author from Google's snippet view.

Being attributed to Ford just a few months later looks like a classic case of a close corollary to the the second axiom of misquotation : memorable words need famous authors. ~ Ningauble ( talk ) 14:54, 22 October 2013 (UTC) A quick Google search came up with an entry on the website Quote Investigator that lists a September 1947 attribution to Henry Ford in Readers Digest that is similar to this quote. According to them, the original quote was "Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right," and was published five months after Ford's death. Littlejohn657 ( talk ) 19:43, 16 October 2015 (UTC) "If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse"[ edit ] Does anyone know if this quote is apocryphal , or did Ford really say it? 141.197.8.183 16:37, 23 March 2009 (UTC) Ford did say that, but it's "... said faster horses" instead of "...

asked for a better horse" —This unsigned comment is by 218.4.94.66 ( talk • contribs ) . I, too, would like to see a source for this. It seems that this quote has become VERY common in the past two years, but was not used at all before that. Can someone look through their quote books to find this pre-2000s, perhaps even pre-1990? —This unsigned comment is by 145.247.15.207 ( talk • contribs ) . Tom Wood contacted the Henry Ford Museum which has an archive of his letters and writings. They politely declined to help but with this rather telling statement: “In the past research on this topic has not yielded satisfactory results either for the researcher or the research staff. Mr. Ford wrote numerous articles for a variety of periodicals and newspapers and the quotes attributed to him were varied and often unsubstantiated.' Source Another source There is no evidence that Ford ever said this. It only began being attributed to Ford in the early 2000s. Earlier versions of the quote have nothing to do with Ford.

Source "If you need a machine and don't buy it, you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don't have it."[ edit ] This one is painted up and down the tubes (google who said "if you need a machine and don't buy it") Haven't located a source. 108.232.106.174 05:09, 31 January 2013 (UTC) The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts.[ edit ] I cannot find any sources for this, but it's a very important thought. (- I think I read it in the International Jew) "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs"[ edit ] I see this ascribed to Henry Ford in various places, notably the Civilization game series as an aphorism related to replaceable parts or the assembly line. Any source? 98.206.218.218 04:50, 15 September 2013 (UTC) == Hitler !?!?!==not true The quote ascribed to Hitler by Bill McGraw has any countercheck?

I mean: if Ford was an inspiration to Hitler, how could he never be nominated, not even a single time, in Mein Kampf or in any other speech by Hitler except in this book of the 1999? Important quote not in here[ edit ] "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Why is this quote not in here!? I'd have added it right now if I knew what time he made it. (Your spam filter prevents me from entering the quote source!) Wikidrift ( talk ) 14:04, 22 August 2014 (UTC) That's a good question. This has been addressed in this Skeptics.StackExchange post , and it turns out to have been a paraphrasing, by congressman Charles Binderup , of a passage of Ford's 1922 book "My Like and Work" (emphasis mine): “The people are naturally conservative. They are more conservative than the financiers. Those who believe that the people are so easily led that they would permit the printing presses to run off money like milk tickets do not understand them.

It is the innate conservation of the people that has kept our money good in spite of the fantastic tricks which financiers play–and which they cover up with high technical terms. The people are on the side of sound money. They are so unalterably on the side of sound money that it is a serious question how they would regard the system under which they live, if they once knew what the initiate can do with it.” — Henry Ford , My Like and Work, p. 179 -- Waldir ( talk ) 17:16, 24 July 2015 (UTC) When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.[ edit ] Widely quoted in quote collections and social media, but I haven't been able to find a primary source. dad ( Talk to me ) 16:32, 28 June 2015 (UTC) It is quite clear that according to Google Books the quote When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. is: First mentioned without attribution in : Vern McLellan (1988), Shredded Wit, p.

166, and First attributed to Henry Ford in: Jan Bailey, ‎Jan Bailey Mattia, ‎Patty Marler (1996). Job Hunting Made Easy. p. 77 United States. Army Recruiting Command, ‎United States. Army Recruiting Command. Public Affairs Office (1996). Recruiter journal, Vol. 49. p. 6 Words of Wisdom, Gramercy Books, 1998, p. 154 It is however unclear how this information should be interpreted: Disputed or even Misattributed. None of these three sources seem to be very authoritative, and none of the more recent sources give more detailed information. -- Mdd ( talk ) 18:08, 30 June 2015 (UTC) Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it[ edit ] I haven't found this quote attributed to anyone but Ford on the internet. As a result, I am surprised it is not attributed to Henry Ford here.

Taxee ( talk ) 22:57, 8 September 2015 (UTC) All About the Color BLACK - Sensational Color All About the Color BLACK by Kate Smith 8 Comments Black is authoritative and powerful; because black can evoke strong emotions, too much can be overwhelming. Black represents a lack of color, the primordial void, emptiness. It is a classic color for clothing, possibly because it makes the wearer appear thinner and more sophisticated. THE MEANING OF BLACK AROUND THE GLOBE In Chinese culture, colors corresponded with the five primary elements, the directions, and the four seasons. Black was associated with water, north, and winter. In Aztec culture, black represented war because black obsidian glass was used as the cutting edge of battle swords. It was also the symbol of religion; priests wore no other color but black. In the west, black is the color of mourning but the custom of wearing unadorned black clothing for mourning dates back at least to the Roman Empire, when the Toga pulla made of dark-colored wool was worn during periods of mourning. In rural areas of Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece widows will wear black for the rest of their lives.

The immediate family members of the deceased will wear black for an extended period of time. In England, taxi cabs are traditionally black. In China, black is a traditional clothing color for boys. Black comedy: creating comedy out of a tragic event or situation Black coffee: coffee without milk Black belt: the highest awarded belt in the martial arts Blackball: voting against someone in a secret manner to prevent them from becoming a member of a club Blackmail: to demand payment or action by means of a threat Black sheep: a bad character in an otherwise respectable group Black day: a bad day; often used before the name of a paticular day to symbolize a tragic event, such as black Tuesday or black Friday. Please note that while the terms above illustrate how black has historically been used in language, equating black to negativity is outmoded and using these terms could be hurtful. Like color, language is a powerful tool, so please always choose your colors and words wisely. QUOTES ABOUT BLACK “I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black.” — Pierre-Auguste Renoir “Black is real sensation, even if it is produced by entire absence of light.

The sensation of black is distinctly different from the lack of all sensations.” — Hermann von Helmholtz “I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he’s a victim of the times.” — Johnny Cash “Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real.” — Amy Grant “People can have the Model T in any color – so long as it’s black.” — Henry Ford “Black is not a color.” — Edouard Manet “There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it.” — Georgia O’Keeffe “Black seems to make a colour cloudy, but darkness doesn’t.

A ruby could thus keep getting darker without ever becoming cloudy; but if it became blackish red, it would become cloudy.” — Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein “Black is a color of power and strength, and to see all those players, with the captains linking their arms in front – it’s a powerful picture.” –Hayden Fry BLACK IN THE GARDEN Why grow black flowers? Not just for the sake of having a conversation piece in your garden, although they are good for that. The best reason is because they have so many design uses. For example, black flowers are great for cooling down hot colors, like fire-engine-red ‘Lucifer’ crocosmia or hot-orange Mexican sunflower. – Garden Gate Magazine The magic of black flowers has attracted our attention for centuries. Black tulips and black roses appear to originate from a fairytale world. A pure black flower is the Holy Grail of plant breeders worldwide. Their improbable and “unnatural” color inspires a powerful feeling of mystical expectation. {Read more about black flowers from the Flowers and Plants Association } Creating a black garden needs to be given some thought. Is your aim formal or modern? Do you wish to use black as accents and highlights or as the main color?

Forget people who say that black cannot be used on its own and don’t argue over what is or is not black, just simply plant it. Use the differing tones and hues to enhance the overall feeling. Be certain of one thing: this color is not gloomy. It is modern, vibrant, and sexy. It mixes so easily with other colors of the spectrum, above all with green, chartreuse, gold, and silver. – Karen Platt BLACK AND OUR SENSE OF TASTE Black tea accounts for over 90% of the tea consumption in the western world. The characteristic flavors of black tea range from flowery to fruity, nutty, and spicy and emerge during the production process. – SpecialTeas A pinch of black pepper is added to almost every type of recipe imaginable. Once used as currency and presented to the gods as a sacred offering, it is fortunate that this most popular of spices is available throughout the year. – whfoods.org True licorice candy contains an extract from the root of the licorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra. This licorice root has been used since ancient times to flavor and sweeten candies, teas, throat lozenges, pharmaceuticals, and other products.

Today many, but not all, black licorice candies are flavored with licorice extract. – Hersheys.com BLACK AND OUR SENSE OF SMELL Anise: Licorice scent. An all time favorite of licorice lovers. Aromatherapy benefits: Cheering, sense-enhancing, mildly euphoric. – Scent It.com Licorice: mysterious, spicy-sharp, almost louche — as scents go, licorice is notoriously polarizing. Blended into perfumes, it gives otherwise ho-hum fragrances a “sexy, murky spin.” – Cristina Mueller (Lucky magazine Sept. 2006) “Licorice” was the original scent of the black colored Magic Scents Crayons from Binney & Smith Inc., introduced in 1994 with mostly food scents. However, there were numerous reports that children were eating the food-scented crayons, so the food scents were retired and replaced with non-food scents. The scent for the color black became “leather jacket.” Is there something you know about black that should be included here? Great! We’d love to hear from you.

Share what you know about black (or any other color) by clicking here . Discover More About The Meaning, Symbolism & Psychology Of Colors

Question: Who said (when speaking of cars) you can have any colour you want as long as its black
Answer: Henry Ford